All posts tagged "Andy Van Slyke"

Two Pittsburgh Pirates trades to talk about and four former players born on this date. Starting with the biggest deal of the day, on this date in 1987, The Pirates traded catcher Tony Pena to the St Louis Cardinals in exchange for pitcher Mike Dunne, catcher Mike LaValliere and outfielder Andy Van...

After climbing the hill in 1988, the Pirates slipped badly in 1989. The club fell below the .500 mark again and was never closer than 10 off the pace after the All-Star break. The Pirates re-tooled slightly heading into 1990. Bobby Bonilla was moved from third base into right field. Former first...

After being as close to a perpetual contender as any team in the National League East, the Pirates went through what was to my teenage eyes the worst three years imaginable. 1984, 1985 and 1986 saw the Pirates finish dead last each season. Back then, I thought that three year stretch of...

Born on this date in 1960 was Andy Van Slyke, the All-Star, Gold Glove defender who manned center field for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1987 to 1994. Van Slyke was a first round draft pick of the Cardinals in 1979 and he made his major league debut in mid-June 1983 after he...

While glancing at the Win Expectancy chart for last night’s Yankees-Rangers game, I realized that FanGraphs also has these charts for historical games. Although I already knew that, I had never taken the time to sift through some older games. Here is a look at...